SBSI Wave-5
figure 13
The most commonly used social media sites are Facebook and LinkedIn (see Figure 14). Facebook is now used for business purposes by 27 percent of small enterprises, up from 17 percent in June 2010. LinkedIn is used by 18 percent, up from 8 percent in June. While everyone knows about Twitter, small businesses are finding fewer uses for it. Only 7 percent of small businesses use Twitter for their business, not much changed since June. It is likely that the two mainstream sites have clearer business uses than Twitter, one for creating a venue for advocating and promoting their brand, the other for maintaining the networks so important to professional businesses.
A handful of small businesses are using more specialized social media tools. This includes 8 percent who have use blogs and 8 percent who use location-based services.
figure 14
Websites serve as an anchor for a business brand presence, but as noted earlier, small companies rarely update their sites. In contrast, there is a high level of interactivity with social media sites. Among businesses that use Facebook, 66 percent “update or interact with” the site for business purposes at least weekly (see Figure 15).
figure 15
*Caution: small sample size
